Miso Market opens, with room for more

Miso Market, a Japanese grocer, opened Friday in Porter Square. (Photo: Marc Levy)

Miso Market, a Japanese grocer, opened Friday in Porter Square to a steady trickle of customers eager to find a replacement for the lamented Kotobukiya, which was squeezed out of the Porter Exchange (now known as The Shops at Porter) in May 2009.

The store is spare, with plenty of open space that could be filled with more products. Unlike Kotobukiya, which has a successor in Medford far from public transportation, Miso Market doesn’t have produce, prepared sushi or extensive makings for sushi. But workers fielded customer questions and requests Friday with promises they would try to track down items that weren’t yet in the store, which does have tables and shelves of pastry, snacks and desserts as well as quick meals and some ingredients for more serious cooking. There are also refrigerated and frozen foods and drinks.

The opening came slower than expected; the estimate back in March was for a May opening.

Miso Market is a direct offspring from Tokai, the Japanese gift shop at 1815 Massachusetts Ave., as well as the practical offspring of Kotobukiya. Fumi and Steve Genova, who opened Miso Market, were the original owners of Tokai but sold the gift shop in 2007 to Hideyo Kanai, the sister of Fumi Genova, according to Tokai’s Mario Fonseca.

Miso Market, at 1963 Massachusetts Ave., is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Call (617) 945-7789. Ron Newman notes on the Davis Square LiveJournal that the Web address given on the store’s business cards isn’t live.